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John E. Alford, M.D.
Dr. John E. Alford, physician and surgeon, successfully practicing in
Okolona, Arkansas, was born near Kirby, in Pike county, this state, May
22, 1871. His father, D.R. W.D. Alford, was born in Alabama and came to
Arkansas with his parents when a small boy. The grandfather, the Rev. Ewing
Alford, after serving in the Mexican war, being on active duty in Texas,
came to Arkansas. In the early '40s he had removed from Texas to Pike
county, this state, and cast in his lot with the pioneer settlers of that
locality. The family comes of English ancestry and was established on
American soil before the War of 1812, the first representative of the
name settled in Virginia and afterward participating in the second war with
England under General Jackson, taking part in the battle of New Orleans.
Thus for considerably more than a century the Alford family had been found
on this side of the Atlantic and for more than two-thirds of a century has
been represented in Arkansas. Dr. W.D. Alford, father of Dr. John E. Alford,
is still living at the notable age of eighty-seven years, his home being in
Murfreesboro, Arkansas, where he formerly engaged in the practice of
medicine for a long period but is now retired. He was at one time county
treasurer of Pike county for two terms and during the Civil war he served as
head steward in a hospital at Little Rock, where he was stationed when the
city was captured by the Federal troops under General Steele. He was with
the army throughout the four years' period of the war. His wife, who bore
the maiden name of Rebecca Sharp, died in Murfreesboro, Arkansas in 1898 at
the age of fifty-eight years. She was born near Greenville, Tennessee, and
the Sharp family removed from that state to Pike county, Arkansas in 1840,
being also numbered among the early pioneer settlers of that locality. The
Sharp family is of Irish lineage, the grandfather of the Doctor having come
from Ireland to America in the ,30s. He fought under General Jackson in the
Seminole Indian war in Florida. It was near Murfreesboro, Arkansas, in 1870,
that Rebecca Sharp became the wife of Dr. W.D. Alford and to them were born
three sons, all of whom are living.
Dr. John E. Alford, the eldest of the family, was educated in the common
schools of Pike county and in the high school at Murfreesboro, after which
he took up the profession of teaching, which he followed in Hempstead and
Pike counties for four or five years, or until 1894. In that year he began
studying medicine in the Barnes University of St. Louis, Missouri and later
was graduated from the Gate City Medical College at Texarkana, Texas winning
his M.D. degree in 1906. From the time when he began the study of medicine
in 1894 he was engaged in practice in Pike, Montgomery and Clark counties,
although he did not obtain his professional degree until 1906. His medical
education was acquired through his own efforts, his earnings supplying him
with the money necessary to meet his tuition and other expenses of his
college course. In 1906 he opened an office in Black Springs, Montgomery
county, Arkansas where he remained until 1908 and then went to Polk county,
this state. A little later he located at Caddo Gap, where he continued from
1909 until 1918, successfully practicing medicine there. In the latter year
he came to Okolona where he has remained and here he is successfully and
extensively engaged in the general practice of medicine and surgery. He
is also serving as health officer of Okolona and during the World war he
was a member of the Volunteer Medical Corps.
Dr. Alford was united in marriage to Miss Occo Mauney, a daughter of M.M.
Mauney of Murfreesboro, Arkansas, the wedding being celebrated July 21,
1897. They are parents of a son and a daughter; Millard Williams, nineteen
years of age who is attending the Henderson-Brown College at Arkadelphia,
Arkansas where he is studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree and is also
editor in chief of the Star, a college manual; and Alice Dell, who
graduated from the Okolona high school in 1922.
Dr. Alford is a Mason belonging to Rob Mori Lodge No. 106, AF. & A.M. of
Okolona of which he is past worshipful master, while at the present time
he is serving as secretary. He was raised a Mason in Pike Lodge No. 91 at
Murfreesboro in 1899. His religious faith is that of the Methodist
Episcopal church, South, and along professional lines he is connected with
the Clark County Medical Society and the Arkansas State Medical Society.
He has reached high standards in his profession and his ability is
constantly increasing as the result of his experience, his wide study and
thorough investigation. He holds to the highest ethical standards of his
profession and he command the respect of his professional brethren and of
the laity as well.
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Centennial History of Arkansas, 1933, Dallas T. Herndon, Volume 3,
pages 114-115.
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